Dual shuttle air gun

Details

Inventors: Harrison, Earnest R.;
Assignee: Halliburton Geophysical Services, Inc. (Houston, TX)
Primary Examiner: Jordan; Charles T.
Assistant Examiner: Eldred; J. Woodrow
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Arnold, White & Durkee

A dual shuttle air gun for generating maximum acoustic output for seismic testing having a housing with an air chamber formed therein and a chamber opening that opens 360 degrees around the periphery of the body is disclosed. The two shuttles are positioned around the housing axially displaced from each other, but close enough to allow the end faces of each shuttle to come into close proximity with each other. When the air gun is fired by the activation of a solenoid, compressed air flows into a firing chamber formed between the first shuttle and the housing causing the first shuttle to begin opening. When the first shuttle moves, the end faces of the two shuttles are exposed to the compressed air from the primary chamber. This causes the two shuttles to rapidly move away from each other providing for very quick release of the stored compressed air. When the solenoid is deactivated, the two shuttles are forced back into a prefire condition over the 360 degree opening.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION The present invention provides for maximum bubble velocity by allowing for a maximum discharge of stored compressed air from a primary chamber into the surrounding water.
This rapid discharge is made possible by the addition of a second movable sleeve shuttle which is employed to more rapidly uncover the 360.
degree.
annular port when the air gun is fired.
The external sleeves' operation permits the 360.
degree.
exhaust flow area to increase as the sleeves move apart in response to air pressure differentials acting on opposite surfaces of the shuttles.
The air exhaust flow area is limited only by the combined stroke distance of the two shuttles.
This combined action produces a very large acoustic output.
This second valve more than doubles the rate of increase in flow area, as compared to conventional air guns.
The air gun of the present invention includes, in a particularly preferred embodiment, an annular housing which in turn has formed within it a primary chamber for storing compressed air.
The primary chamber opens 360.
degree.
around the periphery of the housing surrounding a center post section of the body.
A first external sleeve-type shuttle surrounds the body and partially covers the 360.
degree.
opening.
A second external sleeve-type shuttle also surrounds the body and comes to near contact with the face of the first shuttle to completely cover the 360.
degree.
opening in a prefire position.
The dual shuttles are held in this prefire position by pressure supplied from two control chambers formed between the body and the sleeve shuttles and which bear against surfaces of the shuttles.
The air pressure is supplied by a continuous source of compressed air.
In this particularly preferred embodiment, the air gun includes a first control chamber formed in a space between the gun housing, the inner surface of the first sleeve shuttle and an inwardly extending lip of the first sleeve shuttle.
Compressed air bears against the exposed surface area of the lip forcing the shuttle away from the air source

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